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111V ^ The Point F o e
September
Senior Bryant Porter, arrested while filming at the scene, believes: “They were just chasing me
because I had the video camera.”
SEAN MUSSENDEN
managing editor
-’m not a troublemaker;, I only had good inten­tions.
I didn’t have thoughts of being Perry
.Mason or videotaping Rodney King, I just
wanted to show my girlfriend what was going on.” It was
with this in mind, to document Saturday night’s police
actions for his girlfriend who had gone away lor the
weekend, that senior Bryant Porter grabbed a video camera
and ran out onto the iownhouse green.
At first Porter wandered around recording police cars,
tleeing students, K-9 units, and even solicited a few candid
interviews from county and state olticers. “I videotaped
one cop saying, ‘What are you? AI ag?’ To a male student,
stated Porter. “Also, behind Harrington, I asked a cop
‘Did you get to mace anyone?’ The cop smiled and said,
‘Oh yeah, I got to spray three people.’”
From Harrington, he proceeded to the center ot the
townhouse green, where he videotaped many ofticers and
students, including one otticer “who said something to the
effect of ‘great, you’re getting this on tape, we might want
it later,” ’ according to Porter. He quickly moved onto the
road behind Boone, where many ot the squad cars had lined
up. For the first time all night he was verbally warned by
an officer to “not get too close to the cars.” •
“Until that warning,” which Porter explained was not
forceful in nature, pointing out that the ollicer had not
ordered him inside, “I hadn’t heard one warning all night.”
He moved to a crowd of students perched at the edge of
the DPC circle, hoping to procure a few interviews.
“ [Trooper First Class Hickey] screamed to the crowd, ‘I
told you a thousand times to get back,” ’ said Porter.
However, Porter maintains that, “I had not seen her all
night, and I hadn’t heard a single one of her warnings.”
Porter and a few other students moved to the opposite side
of DPC where he was pursued by three olficers. At this point
he knew he was in trouble. “I stopped, turned the camera off,
and threw up my hands. I said, ‘I’m cooperating, I’m just
filming,’ but they kept running after me . .. shouting. I was
of no threat to them. They tackled me. They put their knees
in my back. Then they hog tied me [bound his feet and hands
together].” The camera was wrestled out of his hands and
tossed into the grass. Porter added, “The force they used on
me after I made it clear that I was going to cooperate is what
upset and shocked me the most.”
He was put with the other arrestees, and the camera was
later brought to him by an officer. Porter asked a student to
take the camera, which belonged to his girlfriend, back to his
roommate, senior Steve Schmidt at Harrington 1. Schmidt
called for a Public Safety officer to escort him to Porter, so
that he could show him that the camcorder was safe. “I
figured he didn’t want to get in trouble with Bonnie [Porter’s
girlfriend] in addition to getting arrested, so I showed him
that the camera was okay,” said Schmidt. Olficer Hickey
confiscated the camera stating, “We need this lor evidence,”
according to Porter andSchmidt. Much later, an officer told
them that they wanted the tape because it may have shown
a rock thrown at a squad car.
Unbeknownst to Hickey, the “evidence” of which she
spoke was no longer in the camera. Schmidt said that there
was no tape in the camera when he received it. At some
point, the tape was removed from the camera.
Three officers, including one Public Safety officer,
knocked on Harrington 1 demanding the tape. Schmidt
said he did not know where the tape was, even offering a
description of the person who gave him the camera. “[Of­ficer]
Bell pulled out his cuffs, asked for the tape, and when
I said I didn’t have it he arrested-me,” said Schrhidt.
Schmidt, 21, was charged with hinderance and drunken
disorderly conduct (despite registering a .01 alcohol level),
while Porter was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The video tape was returned to Harrington 1 the next day
by an unknown person, and was promptly turned over to
Porter’s lawyer, David Densford. “We’re not sure of the
process by which the tape was taken or recovered,” said
Porter. Porter and Schmidt do not have any copies of the
tape. The camera is still in police custody.
Porter noted that, “It’s clear on the tape that nobody was
causing a riot or charging officers,” adding, “Look, I live
here, I was videotaping what was going on, because we’ve
never seen something like this before.”
Hickey was unavailable for comment.
Sheriff’s Department spokesman explains that units were deployed to protect police:
“300 students with 9 or 10 officers is intimidating”
NEIL IRWIN
senior editor
P kolice involvement began with
the arrival of a single officer.
By the end of the night, there
were as many as two dozen, supported
by a K-9 unit and a helicopter. Police
defended these as standard when deal­ing
with a large crowd, where officers
could be in danger.
Deputy First Class Christopher
Medved, the first sheriff’s deputy to
arrive, remained the commanding of-
; ficer throughout the incident. His col­league
Joseph Somerville, a deputy,
joined him shortly thereafter. Medved
and Somervi lie quickly judged the situ­ation
at hand to be beyond the scope of
what two officers could handle, ac­cording
to Sheriff’s Office spokesman
Tim Cameron. Based on the sheer
number of people, they called for addi­tional
unitstodispersethecrowd. Even­tually,
police gave a final warning over
a public address system urging that the
crowd disperse. When not enough
people complied, police charged the
.crowd, using pepper spray and a police
dog.
“It appears that a small group de­Some
of the onlookers that gathered on the townhouse green.
P h o to by M a rk B uenaflor
cided they weren’t going to leave.
That was another escalating factor,”
said Cameron.
Pepper spray, O.C. Spray in police
parlance, is considered a relatively low
level of force in police protocols, ac­cording
to Cameron. It is generally
used in place of hand-to-hand combat
for the safety of officers, and because it
has no known permanent effects.
Cameron says that the K-9 unit was
deployed simply because it was avail­able.
Similarly, that is how several
units of Maryland State Police became
involved.
The police helicopter also responded
“They took us into a
holding cell It was sheer
hell”
—Jeremy Will, junior
“Officers need to assess
who is a threat and who
isn’t a threat. . . They have
a split second to make a
decision as to what to do. ”
—Shannon Oxley,
sophomore
“It sounds flip, but were
any pots broken last
night?”
—Pete Welsch, senior
Police K-9 unit a\
to Medved’s original call for backup.
The chopper is owned by the Maryland
State Police and housed at the St. Mary’s
County Airport. It is used most fre­quently
in search-and-rescue missions
and medical transport.
Cameron defends the use of the he­licopter,
stating that it is normal proce­dure
to have such a tool in cases where
large crowds are involved and officers
are uncertain of their own safety. It
allows police to observe the crowd
from above, and especially to see if
anyone was threatening the police.
Neither Medved nor Somerville could
be reached for comment.
Conf
Some were arrested. Some watch
These are the stories of a few oft
Sophomore Ann Green gasped for breath, hi
‘ ‘I can’t breathe, I
HEATHER GILBERTSON
focus editor
A nn Green does not usually attend t
p a rtie s for which St. M a ry ’s College ii
just wanted to show her brother and sist
.when they came to visit her on her first weekend
year. She was not going to drink—she was just going to
started out as a Saturday night of sibling bonding ended wi
a startling arrest.
A couple of hours after Green and her siblings arrived at Tr
Safety showed up around the townhouse green. Nobody
siblings to go home or go inside. When the officers arrived a
Green observed the students sitting down in protest on the
were being handcuffed. She heard the officers asking ever
By 12:15 a.m., Green and her brother and sister had return
Upon her arrival, she was immediately informed that one
stuck at one of the townhouses and was crying hysterica
disbelief. Green then realized that she had left several of
townhouses and proceeded back to the Crescent where a crc
After arriving at the townhouses, she witnessed the arres
which greatly upset her friends. She had to coerce one of he
away from the scene in the chaos of dogs barking and cloud
At this point, Green stipulates, a rock hit a squad car, cau
move toward the crowd. Green was at the back of the
believes made her an easily visible target.
According to Green’s account: Trooper First Class Hickey
a flashlight saying, “If I catch you, you are going to jail.”

111V ^ The Point F o e
September
Senior Bryant Porter, arrested while filming at the scene, believes: “They were just chasing me
because I had the video camera.”
SEAN MUSSENDEN
managing editor
-’m not a troublemaker;, I only had good inten­tions.
I didn’t have thoughts of being Perry
.Mason or videotaping Rodney King, I just
wanted to show my girlfriend what was going on.” It was
with this in mind, to document Saturday night’s police
actions for his girlfriend who had gone away lor the
weekend, that senior Bryant Porter grabbed a video camera
and ran out onto the iownhouse green.
At first Porter wandered around recording police cars,
tleeing students, K-9 units, and even solicited a few candid
interviews from county and state olticers. “I videotaped
one cop saying, ‘What are you? AI ag?’ To a male student,
stated Porter. “Also, behind Harrington, I asked a cop
‘Did you get to mace anyone?’ The cop smiled and said,
‘Oh yeah, I got to spray three people.’”
From Harrington, he proceeded to the center ot the
townhouse green, where he videotaped many ofticers and
students, including one otticer “who said something to the
effect of ‘great, you’re getting this on tape, we might want
it later,” ’ according to Porter. He quickly moved onto the
road behind Boone, where many ot the squad cars had lined
up. For the first time all night he was verbally warned by
an officer to “not get too close to the cars.” •
“Until that warning,” which Porter explained was not
forceful in nature, pointing out that the ollicer had not
ordered him inside, “I hadn’t heard one warning all night.”
He moved to a crowd of students perched at the edge of
the DPC circle, hoping to procure a few interviews.
“ [Trooper First Class Hickey] screamed to the crowd, ‘I
told you a thousand times to get back,” ’ said Porter.
However, Porter maintains that, “I had not seen her all
night, and I hadn’t heard a single one of her warnings.”
Porter and a few other students moved to the opposite side
of DPC where he was pursued by three olficers. At this point
he knew he was in trouble. “I stopped, turned the camera off,
and threw up my hands. I said, ‘I’m cooperating, I’m just
filming,’ but they kept running after me . .. shouting. I was
of no threat to them. They tackled me. They put their knees
in my back. Then they hog tied me [bound his feet and hands
together].” The camera was wrestled out of his hands and
tossed into the grass. Porter added, “The force they used on
me after I made it clear that I was going to cooperate is what
upset and shocked me the most.”
He was put with the other arrestees, and the camera was
later brought to him by an officer. Porter asked a student to
take the camera, which belonged to his girlfriend, back to his
roommate, senior Steve Schmidt at Harrington 1. Schmidt
called for a Public Safety officer to escort him to Porter, so
that he could show him that the camcorder was safe. “I
figured he didn’t want to get in trouble with Bonnie [Porter’s
girlfriend] in addition to getting arrested, so I showed him
that the camera was okay,” said Schmidt. Olficer Hickey
confiscated the camera stating, “We need this lor evidence,”
according to Porter andSchmidt. Much later, an officer told
them that they wanted the tape because it may have shown
a rock thrown at a squad car.
Unbeknownst to Hickey, the “evidence” of which she
spoke was no longer in the camera. Schmidt said that there
was no tape in the camera when he received it. At some
point, the tape was removed from the camera.
Three officers, including one Public Safety officer,
knocked on Harrington 1 demanding the tape. Schmidt
said he did not know where the tape was, even offering a
description of the person who gave him the camera. “[Of­ficer]
Bell pulled out his cuffs, asked for the tape, and when
I said I didn’t have it he arrested-me,” said Schrhidt.
Schmidt, 21, was charged with hinderance and drunken
disorderly conduct (despite registering a .01 alcohol level),
while Porter was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The video tape was returned to Harrington 1 the next day
by an unknown person, and was promptly turned over to
Porter’s lawyer, David Densford. “We’re not sure of the
process by which the tape was taken or recovered,” said
Porter. Porter and Schmidt do not have any copies of the
tape. The camera is still in police custody.
Porter noted that, “It’s clear on the tape that nobody was
causing a riot or charging officers,” adding, “Look, I live
here, I was videotaping what was going on, because we’ve
never seen something like this before.”
Hickey was unavailable for comment.
Sheriff’s Department spokesman explains that units were deployed to protect police:
“300 students with 9 or 10 officers is intimidating”
NEIL IRWIN
senior editor
P kolice involvement began with
the arrival of a single officer.
By the end of the night, there
were as many as two dozen, supported
by a K-9 unit and a helicopter. Police
defended these as standard when deal­ing
with a large crowd, where officers
could be in danger.
Deputy First Class Christopher
Medved, the first sheriff’s deputy to
arrive, remained the commanding of-
; ficer throughout the incident. His col­league
Joseph Somerville, a deputy,
joined him shortly thereafter. Medved
and Somervi lie quickly judged the situ­ation
at hand to be beyond the scope of
what two officers could handle, ac­cording
to Sheriff’s Office spokesman
Tim Cameron. Based on the sheer
number of people, they called for addi­tional
unitstodispersethecrowd. Even­tually,
police gave a final warning over
a public address system urging that the
crowd disperse. When not enough
people complied, police charged the
.crowd, using pepper spray and a police
dog.
“It appears that a small group de­Some
of the onlookers that gathered on the townhouse green.
P h o to by M a rk B uenaflor
cided they weren’t going to leave.
That was another escalating factor,”
said Cameron.
Pepper spray, O.C. Spray in police
parlance, is considered a relatively low
level of force in police protocols, ac­cording
to Cameron. It is generally
used in place of hand-to-hand combat
for the safety of officers, and because it
has no known permanent effects.
Cameron says that the K-9 unit was
deployed simply because it was avail­able.
Similarly, that is how several
units of Maryland State Police became
involved.
The police helicopter also responded
“They took us into a
holding cell It was sheer
hell”
—Jeremy Will, junior
“Officers need to assess
who is a threat and who
isn’t a threat. . . They have
a split second to make a
decision as to what to do. ”
—Shannon Oxley,
sophomore
“It sounds flip, but were
any pots broken last
night?”
—Pete Welsch, senior
Police K-9 unit a\
to Medved’s original call for backup.
The chopper is owned by the Maryland
State Police and housed at the St. Mary’s
County Airport. It is used most fre­quently
in search-and-rescue missions
and medical transport.
Cameron defends the use of the he­licopter,
stating that it is normal proce­dure
to have such a tool in cases where
large crowds are involved and officers
are uncertain of their own safety. It
allows police to observe the crowd
from above, and especially to see if
anyone was threatening the police.
Neither Medved nor Somerville could
be reached for comment.
Conf
Some were arrested. Some watch
These are the stories of a few oft
Sophomore Ann Green gasped for breath, hi
‘ ‘I can’t breathe, I
HEATHER GILBERTSON
focus editor
A nn Green does not usually attend t
p a rtie s for which St. M a ry ’s College ii
just wanted to show her brother and sist
.when they came to visit her on her first weekend
year. She was not going to drink—she was just going to
started out as a Saturday night of sibling bonding ended wi
a startling arrest.
A couple of hours after Green and her siblings arrived at Tr
Safety showed up around the townhouse green. Nobody
siblings to go home or go inside. When the officers arrived a
Green observed the students sitting down in protest on the
were being handcuffed. She heard the officers asking ever
By 12:15 a.m., Green and her brother and sister had return
Upon her arrival, she was immediately informed that one
stuck at one of the townhouses and was crying hysterica
disbelief. Green then realized that she had left several of
townhouses and proceeded back to the Crescent where a crc
After arriving at the townhouses, she witnessed the arres
which greatly upset her friends. She had to coerce one of he
away from the scene in the chaos of dogs barking and cloud
At this point, Green stipulates, a rock hit a squad car, cau
move toward the crowd. Green was at the back of the
believes made her an easily visible target.
According to Green’s account: Trooper First Class Hickey
a flashlight saying, “If I catch you, you are going to jail.”